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A deal between striking bin workers and Birmingham City Council could have been reached were it not for the interventions of the Unite union’s national leadership team, the BBC has been told.
A message seen by the BBC appears to suggest some local members are dissatisfied with how the dispute has been handled. Thousands of tonnes of rubbish has built up on the city’s streets over more than four weeks.
A number of senior Labour figures outside the council, including some MPs, say they understand a deal with local reps would have been reached during the rolling strike in January and February were it not for the involvement of national figures.
However, individuals with knowledge of a proposed deal say it was backed by refuse workers at two of Birmingham City Council’s three bin lorry depots. National Unite figures were involved at the third site where it was rejected.
Sources, including some with extensive union experience, say the handling of the dispute is being influenced by power struggles within Unite.
The industrial action, which began in January and escalated to an all-out walkout in March, has seen hundreds of Birmingham’s refuse workers on strike.
It centres on the loss of a job role that bin workers describe as “safety-critical”, which Unite said would affect about 150 workers and mean a cut of up to £8,000 a year for some and the loss of pay progression for hundreds of others.
In a statement on Thursday, a spokesperson for Unite said it was “outrageous that those with a political axe to grind are trying to score cheap points by attacking Unite members, who are fighting against these brutal wage cuts”.
They said the union made no apology for “defending workers from paying the price for mistakes made by politicians”. “Birmingham’s refuse workers will have their union’s total backing for as long as it takes,” they added.
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